Finding Home
by Kips34
Summary: Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his team's digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?
1. Chapter 1

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 1**

Tony Stark was not typically a sentimental man. And he certainly wasn't one who got overly attached to anyone. Outside of the Avengers… And that small group of friends had taken months of fighting and near-death experiences to worm their way into his heart. Sure he loved Pepper, but she was the exception to every rule in his book, and he had been her boss for years before anything beyond mutual respect even began to make itself known. He was not emotional, and he had no ties to family that anyone knew of.

So, understandably, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanov were beyond confused when they found this unemotional, carefree, detached fighter Monday morning. His workshop looked light a disaster zone, designs and equipment strewn everywhere as if a tornado had ripped through the room. And in the far corner of the workshop, passed out drunk, his dirty, unshaven face stained with the telltale signs of tears, was Tony Stark.

"What the hell happened here?" Natasha wondered aloud, her eyes betraying her utter shock at seeing her friend and teammate in this state.

"I have no idea," Steve answered honestly, making his way through the chaos of the space to try and wake Tony. Nudging his shoulder softly, he kept his voice calm and quiet so as not to startle him, "Stark? Come on, wake up, man. Stark? Stark? Tony?!"

Finally, the man grunted and rolled over, rubbing his puffy eyes and trying to orient himself. "What the hell?!" he barked, irritated at being woken up, but unsure what was going on.

"That's what we were going to ask you," Natasha returned patiently, trying to keep her concern from coloring her tone, "What happened?"

Looking around at the destruction he wrought on the room around him in his previous drunken state, Tony suddenly remembered what had set him off… She was gone.

"Renee," Tony breathed the name, his voice thick with tears.

It didn't take a genius to understand the unspoken message there. Renee was important to Tony. He might have even loved her. And somehow, she had died. Tony was very obviously grieving. Both of his friends could gather all of that from the way he said that one word, the way her name fell from his lips as if the world might end now that she was gone.

The only problem was neither of them had a clue who the hell Renee was, or what her relation was to Stark, and they couldn't really help him until they did.

"Who's Renee?" Steve asked gently.

"My sister," he croaked, to the utter surprise of the other two. They didn't think he had any living family. In fact, they were both fairly certain he didn't have any siblings at all, living or otherwise.

"You sister?" Romanov parroted stunned.

"Half-sister," Tony clarified with a dry chuckle that only sounded partially forced, "The dirty little secret of the Stark family. Renee Dwyer, my baby sister. We shared a father, but her mom kept that a secret for a long time. We only found each other when we were both teenagers."

"What happened?" Rogers asked, keeping the question open-ended, unsure how much history he needed to give to explain what had landed him in such shape this morning.

"I was too late…"

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked, confused.

"We had a falling out when Renee was seventeen," Tony began explaining, grabbing a full bottle of liquor he had stashed in the desk beside the wall, and taking a long swig, "I was only about a year older, but I was about to take the reins of the family business from Dad. Renee hated Dad, understandably, and she always hated the damn weapons business. Basically told me that if I ever got my head out of my ass long enough to turn the business around to give her a call, but until then she wanted nothing to do with me.

After I came to my senses and pulled Stark Industries out of the black hole of war profiteering Dad built, I wanted to call her, to try to fix things. But then the Iron Man missions took over everything in my life. And then Pepper and I finally got together. And then everything that happened in New York with the rest of the Avengers. Before I knew what had happened, years had gone by and I didn't know how to make things right. I kept telling myself I'll call her tomorrow, and then there would be something tomorrow and I would push it off again.

And now it's too late," Tony broke down completely at this point, "I finally decided yesterday it was time to track her down, to call her, to do something to fix it. But Jarvis… He found her, and she's dead."

His friends already knew that she was gone. That was the only way to explain this sort of reaction from the usually composed Stark. But hearing about this part of his history no one on the team had ever even guessed at was horrible. How could neither of them have known that he had a sister? What happened to her? If they'd known, they would have pushed him to salvage the relationship, wouldn't they? Would she still be alive if they had?

"What happened to her Tony?" Steve asked.

"She and her family were murdered in their home," he told them, his eyes focused on some image far away in his head, "She was married to this minor league baseball player, Phil Dwyer. I had no idea she had gotten married. What kind of brother doesn't know that his only sister got married? Her little girl died too. Sabrina, my niece. She was only two years old. I had a niece, and I didn't even know she existed until after she was already dead!"

"Shhh, you're ok," Natasha tried to comfort her friend as he curled up on the floor, letting the grief take him.

Steve took a step back from them, trying to keep his own cool. Seeing someone he considered a brother broken down like this was tearing him apart inside. "Jarvis?" he addressed the AI quietly once he was out of Stark's hearing range.

"Yes, Captain?" came the automated voice through the speakers beside him.

"Can you access the police reports for the deaths of the Dwyer family?" he asked, knowing he probably didn't want to know any more details about this, but also sure he needed to do something to help Tony with this.

"Certainly, Captain. Renee Dwyer, husband Phil Dwyer, and daughter Sabrina Dwyer. No arrests have been made, and the case is considered closed at this time. No new leads and no viable suspects as noted in the file."

"How long ago were they killed?" he asked, knowing that even if there was absolutely no evidence at all, a case wouldn't be closed without an arrest for several weeks at least.

"Three years, Captain," Jarvis responded, pulling up the full report for Steve to view on the screens. The images were enough to turn the soldier's stomach, not an easy task after all the things he had seen in his long life.

"Was there anything else noted by the investigators?" he asked, "Anything that might be of use to us now?"

"There was a letter found at the scene," Jarvis informed him, "The police weren't able to find any prints on it, and it didn't give them any usable information."

"Pull it up please," Steve instructed. Even if the Jacksonville PD couldn't make use of it, they might be able to learn something from him. And Steve knew that Tony needed to find the ones responsible for this if he was going to heal.

Natasha approached behind him and began reading the letter now on the screen.

 ** _B,_**

 ** _This will never end. You can never escape me. I will have what I am owed._**

\- **_V_**

"Well at least that rules out a random home invasion," Romanov commented, "But I'm guessing we have no idea who 'B' or 'V' are?"

"Jacksonville PD didn't seem to have any ideas what any of it might mean," Steve told her, pulling back up the file for her to read through, "They couldn't find a motive at all."

"Jarvis?" Natasha called, "Did Renee have any other family?" They knew that Tony's parents were dead, and there were no other shared siblings that he knew about, but maybe someone on her mom's side of the family might be able to shed some light on things?

"Renee's parents are both deceased. She had no siblings aside from Mr. Stark. Her husband's parents are both also deceased, and he was an only child," Jarvis told them both, "My records show that Renee was married once before, to a man named Charles Swan. He is also deceased. Charles and Renee had one child together, Isabella Swan, who is now twenty-two-years-old. There is no death certificate for Isabella, but she has not held a permanent address or filed her taxes in three years, so there is no way of knowing for certain if she is still alive."

"Three years?" Natasha mused, and Steve quickly understood what she was thinking.

"Jarvis, what was the nature of Charles Swan's death?" he asked.

"He was killed in his home three years ago, Captain, just days after the deaths in Jacksonville," Jarvis confirmed his suspicions, pulling up the accompanying Forks PD file, "The nature of the attack was quite similar to that of the Dwyer family, but due to the divorce and the fact that they lived on opposite sides of the country, the cases were never tied together."

The local police might not have made the connection back then, but it was blaringly obvious to the two of them now.

"Was there a letter found at the scene of his murder as well?" Natasha asked.

"Yes, Agent, there was," Jarvis answered, "And it was also addressed to 'B' and signed 'V'."

 ** _B,_**

 ** _This was fun, but I'm far from finished. You will pay for what you've done. I will avenge him. There is nowhere you can hide from me._**

\- **_V_**

"Whoever did this, they obviously have a serious fixation with this 'B' person," Steve commented.

"It looks like Forks PD had a theory on that at least," Natasha told him, flipping to the last page of the case file, "It seems his daughter, Isabella, went by Bella, and the whole town called her Bells or B."

"And she disappeared the night that Charlie died," Steve finished, "She's the commonality between the killings."

"And likely the only one who might be able to tell us who 'V' is or why they did this," Natasha continued on his train of thought, "Both letters make it clear that the killer had no intention of stopping any time soon… Jarvis, were there any other unsolved homicides in the area with a similar MO?"

"Yes, Agent," Jarvis informed them, "There were several violent homicides in the area in the month following Charles Swan's death that might be related. Billy Black, the Chief of the Quileute tribe, and Sue and Harry Clearwater, two Quileute tribal elders, were all found dead in the Black family home three days after Charles' death. It was noted that all three were longtime friends of the Swan family. A letter was recovered at the scene, but it was not addressed to Miss Swan, and it was not signed."

One look at the crime scene photos told Agent Romanov that this was the same killer, and she also noted that each killing grew more and more violent, like the killer's rage was building as the true object of their attention continued to evade them.

The letter simply read, **_You cannot keep her from me._**

"This is definitely the work of the same killer," Steve stated confidently.

"So if we want to find the person that killed Tony's sister, her family, and friends…" Natasha began.

"We need to find my niece," Tony finished, suddenly there standing behind them.


	2. Chapter 2

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 2**

"Where's Tony?" Clint asked as he made his way into the Avengers Tower living room.

Natasha, Thor, Bruce, and Steve were all already there, and none of them looked pleased to be kept waiting, though he noticed that Nat and Steve both looked exhausted. Whatever reason Nat had for calling this little family meeting wasn't going to be good, and the fact that Stark wasn't there yet had him nervous.

"He'll be up in a few minutes," Rogers told him, avoiding answering his question.

Plopping down on the edge of the sofa, he turned to the rest of the gathering and said, "So, is someone going to tell me why we are all here, or why you all look like someone just died?"

Of course that was the moment Tony chose to make his entrance, and he couldn't help wincing slightly at his friend's choice of words. "You're not that far off," he told him, keeping his voice level. He had allowed far too much of his turmoil to come to the surface with Nat and the Cap earlier, and he was not prepared for a repeat with the rest of the team present.

"Care to explain that?" Banner spoke up. All Romanov had told them when they arrived was that something had happened and someone Tony cared about might be in danger. Talk about vague intel…

"I discovered last night that my estranged half-sister, her husband and young daughter were all brutally murdered in their home in Jacksonville three years ago," Tony said matter-of-factly, "I hadn't spoken to Renee in over twenty years, but she was family all the same, and I need to find out what happened to her."

"Agent Romanov and I did some digging this morning and discovered that Renee's first husband was also killed in a similar fashion only days later, though he lived in Forks, Washington," Steve continued for him, "Three close family friends living on the nearby Indian Reservation were also killed by the same person days after that."

Natasha, who had been handing each of them case files with all of the pertinent family histories and police reports, returned to her seat and picked up where the Captain left off, "At each of the killings, a letter was left that we believe was a message from the killer intended for Isabella Swan, Charlie and Renee's daughter, and Tony's niece. From what we can gather, whoever is responsible for these deaths meant to kill Isabella, but she disappeared around the same time as the killings."

"We need to determine if Isabella is still alive, and if so, where she has been hiding these past few years," Tony picked back up the briefing, "And hopefully, she will have some answers as to who killed our family and why. I'm all that girl has left, and I'll be damned if I let anything happen to her now that I know what's going on."

To say that the team was shocked would be quite an understatement. Tony Stark, Mr. Go-it-alone, anti-family-man, had a half-sister he never told them about, who had not one, but two husbands, and a daughter to go with each marriage. And as soon as he discovered that this large extended family existed, he also learned that most, if not all, of them were long dead. What the hell were they supposed to say in the face of that?

"We are with you," Thor spoke up first, "The young Isabella is your family, and that makes her our family. We will help you find and protect her." The rest of the team nodded their assent.

"Of course we will," Bruce spoke up, finally thawing from his shock, "If nothing else, Isabella should be able to give you some answers. We'll find her."

"Am I the only one that just wants to meet a young, female version of Stark?" Clint added, trying to lighten the mood a bit, and was pleased to hear Tony's distinct snort, a few light chuckles in response.

"If she's anything like me," Tony smiled sadly, "She's a survivor. She's alive out there somewhere, but that means she's been staying one step ahead of her would-be killers for years. No paper trail, no putting down roots, fake names, fake documents, never staying in one place for long."

"So, how do we find her?" Thor asked.

Natasha spoke up first, "I can tap into SHIELD's surveillance systems. Facial recognition on CCTV cameras, TSA checks, traffic cameras, satellite telemetry, you name it… If they've caught her image anywhere in the world, I'll find it."

"I'll work facial recognition on the social media angle," Bruce continued on her train of thought, "Every photo uploaded and every video streamed online from someone's smart phone in the last three years. Maybe someone's seen her and doesn't even know it."

"Good idea," Steve commented, "While you two are trying to determine where she went, Thor and I will try to figure out who is after her."

"What is your plan, Captain?" Thor asked him, curious, but also confident in their leader's ability to handle this situation.

"We go to Jacksonville first," Steve told the Asgardian, "Talk to friends of the Dwyers, neighbors, coworkers, anyone who might have seen or heard anything back then that could help. Then we do the same thing in Forks with people who knew the Swans."

"We should also visit the Quileute reservation," Thor added, holding his copy of the killer's last note in his hand, "'You can't keep her from me.' The killer clearly believed that someone there was protecting Isabella, and they killed the chief and two tribal elders. Someone there knows what happened."

"Agreed," Steve replied, deep in thought.

"You two go to Forks and La Push," Clint spoke up, "I'll head to Jacksonville. We'll cover more ground that way."

"Good," Tony concurred, "I want to find her quickly. She's been out there on her own for the last three years with no lifeline. It's about time we brought her home."

"What will you be doing?" Natasha asked, realizing he didn't have a specific task laid out.

"I want to find out who helped her disappear," he said, "Dropping off the face of the Earth the way she did is damn near impossible when there's not a serial killer hunting you. I'm going to see if I can dig up who could have gotten her a new identity, and how she might have financed that sort of Houdini move. Papers don't come cheap."

"But if you can get us the name or names she's been using…" Clint left his comment open-ended.

"It will help us track her down that much faster," Steve finished, just before Thor added grimly, "But if we can find her identity, the killer might be able to as well…"

"And they've got a three year's head start on us," Tony reminded them.

That brought all of it back into focus, and everyone rose at once. "We'd best get moving then," Natasha concluded, "I'll call Fury, fill him in. He should have jets ready to go for you guys by the time you arrive at SHIELD."

And with that, they all made to leave for their tasks, ready to do whatever was necessary to bring Tony's family home.

"Thank you," Tony whispered, causing them all to stop and turn their gazes back to him. He was trying not to let his emotions leak into his voice as the magnitude of his loss hit him once again, but they all saw it in his eyes.

Failure simply was not an option this time. Isabella Swan would be found, and she would be brought back to New York so they could protect her from whatever this was. For Tony's sake, and for Isabella's, they would not fail.


	3. Chapter 3

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 3**

Molly was scrubbing blood and spilt beer off the floor of the tavern, again. It had been an insanely long night, and of course, some local drunk had started a mean bar brawl less than an hour before last call, making a real mess of the place for her to clean up.

Josh's little drinking hole wasn't much to see. In fact, if she was being honest about it, the place was a real dump. But she needed cash, food, and a place to stay, and Josh was more than happy to oblige so long as she worked hard for her keep, and kept his bed warm at night.

Three years ago, if someone had told her that she'd be working as an off the books bartender in some Podunk town in Utah, she'd have told them they were insane. If they'd then proceeded to inform her she would be sharing a bed with the bar's drunk, sarcastic ass of an owner, she would have slapped them, hard. And she hadn't been the violent type back then. So, there is absolutely no way in hell she would have believed them if they'd finished by telling her she would quickly find herself falling in love with him…

But then again, three years ago, she had been a heartbroken, innocent little virgin who never in a million years would have been attracted to someone like Josh in the first place.

Clearly things had changed quite a lot in the past few years…

And so here she was at six o'clock in the morning, watching the sun rise over the desert through the front windows as she scrubbed blood out of the wood on her hands and knees.

And as she washed the last of the evidence of last night's fight away, Molly found her mind wandering as it so often did.

Back to a time before this life of hers. Back before she was Molly, or Lizbeth, or Sarah, or Rose, or Charlotte. Back before all the running and hiding and fighting. Back to a time when her life was simple. It seemed like another life now, so long ago that it almost felt more like a dream than a memory.

Back then she had been Bella Swan, the clumsy, pale-skinned teenage daughter of the Chief of Police in a small town in the middle of nowhere. Back then she had been nobody, and she had hidden in the background while she silently prepared for her future. A future that she was never destined to live.

That girl no longer existed. Bella Swan died the night she found her father's mutilated body waiting for her in their home with Victoria's note nailed to his chest. The woman that walked out of that house that night was no longer Bella.

But over the last three years, she'd become someone stronger, someone willing to fight to survive.

And she had needed to, time and again. The scars which littered her body now were testament to that. No matter what name she went by, Bella Swan was a survivor.

"Molls, what ya thinkin bout so hard, darlin?" Josh drawled as he came up behind her, where she still knelt on the floor, bloody rag in hand.

She jumped when he spoke, startled out of her thoughts. She mentally chastised herself for being so recklessly inattentive. If one of Victoria's men had caught her so unaware, she'd be as good as dead right now.

Shaking off that thought, Molly turned stood silently, allowing Josh to approach her from behind and pull her securely into his arms before she answered him quietly, "My ghosts have just been real close to the surface this morning, that's all."

"Ah," he murmured his immediate understanding. She'd been plagued by nightmares and flashbacks when she first came to him nearly six months ago, and spending nearly every moment in each other's company over the past half a year, he'd pieced together a fair amount about her past, even if she hated to speak of it.

He knew that her family was dead, and that the circumstances of their deaths had been traumatic for her, though she never so much as uttered their names or told him anything about what had happened to them. Josh wasn't even sure who all 'her family' had once included, whether she'd had siblings or a husband or children, only that she was now very much alone in the world.

He also knew the moment he laid eyes on her scars that first night together that something terrible had happened to her, something that he wasn't sure he wanted to know anything about.

Burns. Knife wounds. Two clear bullet wounds. And the bite marks. Hundreds of bite scars that covered nearly every inch of her from her neck to her ankles. All of her scars were faint, almost a translucent off-white color, and he'd noticed fairly early on that they were slightly cold to the touch, and seemed to shimmer a bit in the sunlight.

He couldn't explain any of that, and he had a million questions, but he knew in his heart that whatever had happened to her, it had been horrific enough that she didn't want or need him pushing her to talk about it.

"You alright now darlin?" he asked her, holding her tightly to him as if to reassure himself that she was safe, even if he wasn't sure exactly what had upset her.

"Yeah," she sighed, turning in his arms so she could meet his worried gaze, "I'm alright. Better than alright now. I'm right where I belong," she whispered her last words as she laid her head against his broad chest.

To the rest of the world, Josh was an abrasive, disrespectful, smart ass, and it had taken months for Molly to chip away at that rugged exterior, but now that she'd seen this side of him, the man that wanted nothing more than to love and protect her, she knew she'd never be able to let him go. She just prayed that if the time ever came for him to learn the truth about who she really was and all she'd been through, that he would stand by her, because she truly couldn't bear the thought of losing him now.

And his next words worked to ease her fears for the time being as his lips brushed her ear and he whispered, "I'll always be here to chase away your ghosts. You're safe with me, darlin. I promise."

Her eyes met his, filling with tears of joy as she thanked whatever god was watching over her now that she had finally found a small piece of happiness after the hell of a life she'd endured thus far.

But as the couple held one another in the growing light of morning, neither was aware of the eyes trained on them in the distance.

A single set of furious, blood red eyes...


	4. Chapter 4

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 4**

Natasha Romanov prided herself on being ready for anything. The legendary Black Widow, spy, assassin, SHIELD agent, she liked to think that she was never taken by surprise. She had an uncanny ability to read people. She could tell after only a few minutes with a person what made them tick, how to get into their heads, and most importantly how to predict what they were going to do next.

So, you'd think that Agent Romanov would have no problem at all tracking down one civilian girl with no resources. She'd thought finding the trail of Isabella Swan would be a walk in the park compared to her usual activities with SHIELD. Instead, she was growing more and more frustrated by the minute as she sifted through the thousands upon thousands of different surveillance feeds, searching for any trace of their girl. With no success, she might add.

Isabella was proving to be a bit of a ghost.

"Anything on your end?" she asked Banner, who was staring just as intently at his own set of screens as he searched tirelessly through the millions of social media and online forum postings that might hold a clue as to where Isabella had gone.

"Nothing," he sighed, closing his eyes and rubbing his temples lightly as he sat back in his chair, "What are we missing here?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking up from her screens.

"Isabella was nineteen when the killings occurred right?" he begins, "And yet she somehow disappeared on a moment's notice when things went south. What kind of teenage girl in the US has an escape plan in place for that sort of situation?"

"So you think she knew someone was coming for her even before the first killing?" Natasha thought he might be right, but didn't like the implications of what he was saying any more for it.

"And that she planned her escape ahead of time, just in case," Banner confirmed, "Think about it. I know the first place you must have checked was train stations, airports, bus stations, and the like. Nothing. So she had her own vehicle, right? Except her truck and her father's cruiser were both present at the scene when police arrived and there were no cars reported stolen in the town around the time of her disappearance, so whose car was she driving?"

"Her friends on the reservation that the killer believed were helping her?" Natasha suggested.

"But we both know you checked all the satellite telemetry we have, and there were no vehicles missing from the area that should have been there," Banner correctly surmised, "So a car entered and left the area undetected during one of the time gaps in the satellite's coverage, but whose, and how did she arrange for transportation so quickly and without leaving any kind of obvious paper trail?"

"Yes, I know all of this already," Natasha grumbled, feeling more frustrated than ever, "What is your point?"

"We are looking for her as if she were the typical teenage girl who just lost her family and is running away," Banner stated firmly, "When we should be looking for an intelligent young woman capable of escaping from a serial killer and remaining hidden for years off the grid. Think like a spy Nat. What would you do if someone was after you and you needed to make yourself disappear?"

She closed her eyes for a moment and tried to imagine herself in Isabella's shoes. As far as they were aware, she had no access to weapons nor any kind of substantial funding, and she wasn't trained in any real form of self-defense, so what would be her first step in keeping a killer off her tail?

"Transport. Provisions. Weapons. Cash. And I'd need to change my appearance," she finally answered.

"So let's forget the vehicle for right now," he suggested, mentally setting 'transport' aside, "Provisions. Check her spending activity leading up to the attacks. Was she stockpiling extra food and water? First aid supplies? Or did she need to stop somewhere on her way out of town?"

Natasha was thoroughly impressed with Bruce's insight in this. But then again, he had spent years in hiding himself so he knew exactly what it took to fall off the map. Yet SHIELD had always been able to keep tabs on him, even back then, and Isabella didn't seem to have left any obvious trail…

"Her spending patterns were completely normal for feeding herself and her father, right up until the night he died. No major spikes in grocery costs. No bulk buys in the days leading up to her leaving town," she answered as her fingers continued to dance across the keys.

"But she didn't use any of her, or her father's, credit cards after his death?" Bruce checked, knowing that was likely one of the first things the former KGB agent checked in her search.

"Not once," she confirmed, "In fact, the police noted that all the cards were accounted for when the crime scene was processed, so she didn't even have them with her when she ran."

"Large withdrawals from their bank accounts?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Nat huffed, frustrated, "The girl just disappeared."

"Ok, so her funding is another big question to pass on to the Captain, but we still might be able to track her down based on provisions, right?" Bruce tried to be optimistic, "Check surveillance from the night she left, specifically focusing on gas stations and small convenience stores within fifty miles of Forks. Gas, food, and water."

Natasha nodded adding, "Plus she might stop for hair dye if she wanted to change her look before she got too far away," and started her search again with renewed focus.

"Now I just have to figure out how to narrow down my search," Bruce grumbled, looking back at the searches still running on his own screens.

Nat thought for a second before looking over at him and saying quietly, "Try photos and videos from funeral services in the months following the first killings. V made it clear they weren't planning on stopping the bloodshed, and just because we haven't connected any other bodies to this yet doesn't mean there weren't other victims. Isabella might have felt compelled to see someone she cared about laid to rest."

As morbid as the thought was, it was a good idea, so sighing sadly, Bruce entered the new parameters and returned to his search.

It was almost two hours later when their searches finally turned up their first real lead. Tony was just making his way into the lab, a look of triumph on his face, ready to share his own findings with them, when Nat's computer started dinging loudly.

"I've got something," she called happily, motioning Tony and Bruce both over to her desk, "You were right," she smiled at him in congratulations, "Isabella Swan was caught on CCTV entering a gas station outside of Seattle on the night that Charles' body was discovered. She was careful to avoid all of the visible cameras in the building, but there was one across the street that managed to capture an image of her face that was clear enough to get a match."

She quickly queued up the video and they watched the girl ride up to the station on an old, red motorcycle – no license plates – and started the gas pump running before ducking inside. She came back out not two minutes later, a gallon of bottled water and several travel packs of what appeared to be trail mix and dried fruit. She tucked her purchases into the travel packs of her bike, before taking her single remaining plastic bag around the back of the building, where they could only assume a bathroom was located. When she rounded the corner again about twenty minutes later, her long, mahogany locks had been sheared off above the shoulders and dyed a golden blonde.

"Twenty minutes in a gas station, and she covered food, water, gas, and changing her appearance, paying for everything in cash so there was no trail to follow electronically," Natasha summarized, somewhat impressed with the planning and execution of this young girl who was surely still in shock from her father's death only hours earlier, "And she very nearly managed to do so without being caught on any of the area's cameras."

"And now we have a vehicle description and an updated physical description to pass on to the others," Bruce added, pleased.

"That's not all we have," Tony piped up, reminding them all that he had come running down here to tell them what he'd found, "Turns out Seattle PD made a series of arrests involving a lawyer who was running an underground documentation fraud operation."

He showed them his own series of photos and sent out the copies of police documents.

"J. Jenks was using his law office as a front to produce and distribute everything from fake ID cards and passports to birth, marriage, and death certificates. And when he was arrested, all of his copies of his work were seized, including a certain order placed the day that Renee was killed and picked up the day that Charles was killed for a customer by the name of B. Swan. And look at the photos."

There in front of them were two dozen fake driver's licenses, all featuring photos of one Isabella Swan, granted with different hair and eyes colors and styles, but they were all clearly her.

"You got us a list of aliases?" Bruce's eyes lit up. Now that was a major step towards finding their girl.

"Not just that," Tony continued, "There were lines of credit established under each of the aliases, and copies of several different credit cards ordered using the new identities."

"Twenty-four different lines of credit, that she would never actually have to pay off, but simply use until she maxed them out and then ditch them, leaving the credit card companies with no way to track down the nonexistent card owners for payment," Natasha was growing more and more impressed by the minute.

"And only three of the IDs recovered featured blonde hair," Tony finished, looking intently at the photo on the widow's screen of his niece astride her motorcycle as she pulled out of the gas station lot, "Emily Samuels, Lauren Grant, and Charlotte Connelly."

"Start with Charlotte," Natasha instructed the others. When they both looked at her questioningly she explained in a pained whisper, "Charlotte shortens to Charlie. She had just found her dead father and fled in a rush. Trust me, she'd use his name first."

They both nodded their solemn agreement and Tony set up his computer alongside Bruce, having no intention of leaving the others until they'd found his niece.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I know I haven't given you guys much of an idea as to when in the fandom timelines this story takes place; sorry about that. Obviously, Bella is 22 now so her storyline is very AU, but I haven't given you any real indication as to when her story diverges from the cannon material, and I think that will be easiest to explain if it is revealed as the story goes along. However, the Avengers timeline won't make much sense unless I give you a little fair warning here before you keep reading. In this AU, Loki and the army of Chitari have NOT attacked... yet, but the Avengers came together as a team under other, equally dire, but far less public, circumstances (that I will reveal as the story goes along). As such, they are close as a team, almost like family, but they haven't been pushed to the limits emotionally the way they will be in the battle for New York when it eventually happens, Thor hasn't been forced to return to Asgard with Loki as his prisoner, the Bi-Frost is intact (for now... I know that's completely off-script for the Marvel Universe, sorry), and Tony is not having PTSD-like symptoms from his brush with death in NY. Also, since the Marvel cinematic universe leaves a lot of the backstories for our Avengers' characters unexplored, I may not follow the histories that my fellow comic-nerds know and love from the original cannon. Now, on with the story (sorry for the super long A/N). I hope you all enjoy.**

 **FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 5**

Fury was living up to his name when Rogers, Barton and Thor arrived at SHIELD HQ. He understood all too well what it was like to lose family, and he felt for Stark, he truly did, but having the entire Avenger's team, and whatever SHIELD resources they decided they needed, being diverted to search for one girl, a girl who was a stranger, even to her own uncle, was completely unacceptable to the Director.

He had been fully prepared to refuse their request to use the quinjets and order them to take their asses back to the A Tower to await a real mission after Romanov's call. That was until Agent Hill had pointed out quite forcefully that Isabella Swan might be useful to SHIELD.

"What possible use could we have for a twenty-something girl with no combat training or higher education?" he had demanded of his agent when she'd tried to talk him into allowing the mission.

"Isabella Swan was being hunted by someone, or something, that viciously killed her entire family without leaving any evidence behind for the police to find, and she managed to escape and completely fall of the grid," Hill reminded him, "At the very least she has important information about a potential enemy, one that could potentially set their sights on Tony Stark if their connection were ever discovered. Finding her means getting our hands on that intel."

Nick didn't want to admit it, but she had a point there. Despite them having never met, Tony was this girl's flesh and blood, and whoever this killer was, they had proven they were willing and able to kill her family. If someone was going to take a stab at one of the Avengers, knowing who or what was coming was invaluable.

"And besides," Hill continued before he could say a word, "Swan has been a virtual ghost for three years. You and I both know that's not easy. Are you really telling me you have no interest in potentially recruiting someone who can do that with absolutely no training? Just imagine what she might be capable of if Agent Romanov got her hands on her."

"Fine Hill," he barked, not pleased in the slightest, but willing to admit that this little side mission of theirs might have some merit, "I'll authorize the use of the jets. But when they find her, she better be worth all this trouble."

And so here he was, thirty minutes later, staring down Captain America, Hawkeye, and Thor, his eye full of frustration and concern.

"Your jets are fueled up and ready to go," he told the Captain, "But I expect regular updates on the progress of this mission, and if at any point I believe your attention is required elsewhere I will pull every last one of you off of this," he warned sternly.

"With all due respect sir, Isabella Swan is Stark's family. And that makes her family to each and every one of us," Steve spoke up, never breaking eye contact with the Director. He respected the man greatly, but he didn't trust him, and he wouldn't choose him over the Avengers if that was what it came to. "We will never stop looking for her."

"Then you'd best find her quickly," Fury had returned just as evenly, not betraying his surprise at being challenged by the military man. Over the last months since calling the Avengers Initiative into action, he'd watched this team come together and become a fairly cohesive unit, but they'd yet to be truly tested, and with their luck, there was probably a world-ending disaster waiting right around the corner. So, perhaps, this Isabella character might be the perfect person to act as the glue that held their misfit team together when the time came.

"Yes sir," Rogers responded before he and Thor made their way into the first jet, Hawkeye simply nodding his acknowledgement before heading to his own aircraft.

As he watched them leave the base, Fury couldn't help but wonder just what exactly they were all getting themselves into on this one?

Clint Barton sat at the controls of his quinjet, bound for Jacksonville, taking advantage of the autopilot to review all the new intel Natasha had sent him.

Isabella Swan. She was a conundrum. On the one hand, a seemingly average teenage girl who was forced to run away from a bad situation. On the other hand, an accomplished escape artist skillfully evading a determined and violent enemy. Determining how those pieces fit together would be the key to finding her, but all of them were drawing a bit of a blank there. It was obvious that they were missing a vital piece of information, and that it was something huge.

But he couldn't concentrate on analyzing what that missing piece might be because as he continued to stare at the two dozen slightly varied headshots on his tablet, he couldn't help thinking she was so much like him…

Before Clint had become SHIELD's Hawkeye, the master assassin and dutiful agent, he had been exactly what she was now. A child forced to grow up too fast after watching his whole family murdered. A teenage boy who became a man the day he found the dismembered bodies of his father and younger brother. And a runner who had mastered the art of being no one at all.

He could still remember his fear, his pain, his anger. His family's deaths changed him fundamentally as a person, and he knew that by the time SHIELD had recruited him, he was a completely different person than the boy he had been.

And Isabella would be no different. The streets hardened a person. If she was truly still alive, she wasn't going to be the beautiful young girl smiling in these pictures he held in his hand.

She was going to be distrustful because when on the run from enemies such as hers trusting the wrong person got you killed. She was going to be paranoid because looking over your shoulder becomes a habit that simply can't be broken. She was going to be fierce and strong and very possibly violent because someone alone in the world has to learn to fight to survive.

His heart ached for Isabella, or Charlotte, or whatever name she was going by now. Because even if they found her, and even if she was alive, even if they could find and eliminate her enemies and make her safe again, even then the innocent joy that he saw in the eyes of the woman captured in these images would be lost. Her eyes had been forcefully opened to the world around her, and that would have changed her forever.

He sighed sadly and set down the tablet, taking back the manual controls as he approached the landing strip. Clint would worry about the aftermath later. Right now he needed to do what he could to find her and bring her home.

Meanwhile, the other quinjet was still in the air, heading West.

Captain Rogers spent the majority of the flight to Seattle reviewing every piece of intel he had been able to find on Isabella Swan. Her family, friends, medical history, school records, everything. He was beginning to feel like he could really understand her, or at least understand who she had been before her family was murdered, and hopefully that would help him to predict her moves and find her before she got herself killed.

"We will find the daughter of Swan," Thor spoke suddenly, sensing his growing worry and seeking to reassure him.

"How can you be so sure?" Steve asked him, brow pulled together in a deep frown.

"She is of the blood of the Starks," Thor reminded him, "If the Man of Iron is any indication, Starks are not easy to kill. Too stubborn to die."

A part of him felt like snorting at the demigod's statement, but the bigger part of him felt the need to point out a hole in that theory, "Renee Dwyer was also a Stark, and that didn't save her, or her youngest daughter."

"Have faith my friend," Thor was undeterred, "Isabella Swan is a young warrior maiden. There is no other way she could have faced such a violent enemy and escaped their clutches back then. And a warrior such as that will survive long enough for us to find her."

He tried to take comfort in what the man was saying, but in his gut he knew that something very dark was brewing here, and he feared they might already be too late. Never, in all his long life, had he ever wanted so desperately to be wrong…

"Rogers," he answered his phone when it began ringing loudly the moment they landed in Seattle.

"Steve, it's Natasha," came the voice of the widow through the line, "We've made some progress on our end. I am sending you and Thor everything we've found so far, including the address of a gas station you'll want to stop at while you're in Seattle."

"Thank you. We will," he assured her, knowing Tony was also listening to the conversation, "Keep me posted."

"They have found something to help us in our search?" Thor asked as he hung up the phone.

Steve passed him the tablet with the new intel, "It appears Isabella was using the name Charlotte Connelly when she left Forks. The photo at the end is a close up of her with the new hair, and what appears to be a nondescript red motorcycle. I don't recognize the model, and the lack of plates makes it difficult to identify. It may have even been built with spare parts, which means it's likely unregistered."

"But she would have had to have already had it before she fled," Thor concluded, "So it might be a good starting point to determine who might have helped her before she left. Someone must have helped her build and maintain the motorcycle, yes? So if we find her mechanic friend, they might have answers as to where she went next."

"It's not a lot to go on, three years after the fact," Steve pointed out.

"But more than we had when we left New York," Thor reminded him, "We will find her." Steve really hoped that he was right…

As they stepped off the quinjet, Rogers breathed in the moist, cool Washington air. The city sky line could be seen in the distance off to one side, but turning the other direction, he noted they were almost entirely surrounded by lush forest as far as the eye could see.

It was odd the feelings this brought out in him. He was born and raised in Brooklyn, and now lived in New York City, and though there was a seventy-year gap in between, he felt comfortable in the sprawling city, with its bright lights and busy streets. This place reminded him of one of the many base camps from the German countryside during the war. It had him thoroughly unsettled.

He tried to ignore the growing feelings of unease as he and Thor climbed into the waiting black SUV and made their way to the gas station Natasha had informed them was Isabella's last stop three years ago, but the hairs on the back of his neck continued to stand at attention, and he simply couldn't shake the feeling that someone was watching them…

 **A/N: PM or leave a Review to let me know who you think Rogers is sensing with his super-soldier instincts. Victoria or one of her helpers? A wolf from the pack? Perhaps a member of the Cullen family, or a Volturi guard? Someone else entirely?**


	6. Chapter 6

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 6**

It had been an impossibly long day for Paul. Really it had been a long week, a rough month, and a downright brutal couple of years. Ever since Sam and Jared had approached him two years ago about helping them start up their construction business, it seemed like he never had a moment to himself to just relax. Granted, the insanity that was his life now really started long before that. He had been buried in responsibilities from the first day that he phased.

Thinking back on those early days, Paul couldn't help but cringe. Sam had always done the best he could for the pack, but back then, when danger seemed to be waiting for them around every corner, they'd all been hopelessly out of their depth. And they'd lost a lot of good people as they desperately tried to fight their enemies.

Things were considerably quieter now on that front; there was only the occasional nomad to deal with, and Sam had lightened up on the patrol schedules as a result.

But Paul couldn't really bring himself to enjoy the reprieve from the constant vampire hunting. Because it hadn't come cheap, and the whole pack knew that there was someone still paying for it every single day.

Bella Swan.

Things had only calmed down after Bella left town for good, and it didn't take a genius to guess that the trouble had followed her straight out of our lives. And by then Charlie, Billy, Harry, and Sue were all already dead.

Not that anyone could ever blame Bella for that. He knew that she likely blamed herself; the letter she left the night she disappeared made that fairly clear to all of them, but despite what she might think, they never blamed her. In fact, Jake, Seth and Leah had all immediately taken off after her to try and convince her to come home.

They never saw those three again, not even in the pack mind, at least not after Sam relayed the news about their families' deaths three days later. So we could only assume that either they decided to leave with Bella, which was entirely possible since their families were gone, or Victoria and her army got to them before they got to Bella. Either way, their absence was even more painful for the pack to bear, and made it that much harder to enjoy the peace now.

Sam blamed himself, and drank to drown his pain. Jared poured himself into the business to distract himself from the pain, barely sparing enough time to eat, sleep, patrol, and tend to his imprint. Quil and Embry both suffered the most from the grief over losing first Bella, who had become like a sister to all of us, but was especially close to each of them, and then the loss of Jake, who was practically their brother.

Collin and Brady were still in high school, but as the end of their senior year was rapidly approaching, they were both making plans to stop phasing and get as far away from La Push and the pack as they could; Bella had practically raised them both after their gran died, and they were lost without her.

Even the imprints were depressed without their little hellion ring leader around. Emily had become especially close to Bella in the months leading up to her departure, and Sam's pain was made all the more potent by the pain of his mate.

And that left Paul. He combined a bit of all of it. He drank to try to forget that those he had sworn to protect her gone. He fought. He partied. He worked himself into the ground.

He had slept with damn near every girl within a hundred miles of the res, only to be bound to and then rejected by his imprint when she returned for Billy's funeral. As if he didn't have enough to deal with in this mess of a life, the spirits decided he needed to be tied to his 'perfect soulmate', who the imprint bond found in none other than his fallen pack brother's older sister, Rachel Black.

So to say that today had been long and grueling was a bit redundant. These days, every hour was too long and too painful for Paul.

He had been checking on a new site for Sam in Seattle, and was now making a quick stop for boos at the gas station on the way out of town, fully intent on spending the rest of his night forgetting his grief in the bottom of a very deep bottle.

That is until he heard what the gentlemen at the front counter were asking Greg, the owner of this little piece of crap gas station.

They were perhaps thirty feet away from him, clear on the other side of the little convenience store attached to the pumps, but with his wolf hearing, every word was crystal clear.

The taller of the two, a muscled soldier-boy type with light blonde hair was holding up a tablet, apparently showing Greg a photo when he said the only thing in the world that could have made Paul pay any attention in that moment, "Her name is Isabella Swan. She lived a few hours from here, but we're pretty sure she stopped in here on her way out of town. Did she say anything about where she was headed?"

Who the hell were these guys? And what did they want with Bella after all this time? Paul couldn't help the pain that coursed through him as he thought about what must have been running through her head that night. And to think that he'd been passing through the doors of this place at least once a week, and talked to Greg a thousand times, and he'd never once even thought to ask him about Bells.

"You know what," Greg said, a surprised laugh following his words, "I actually do remember her. Though I swear she said her name was Charlie something or other. Sweet girl."

Charlie? If Paul wasn't absolutely sure that this was their Bells this stranger was asking about, he was now. She'd taken her father's name when she ran? Why hadn't any of them ever thought to check for that when they looked for her?

"We believe she was using the alias Charlotte Connolly at the time she passed through here," the shorter, stockier man with the long, blonde hair explained, "She may have introduced herself as Charlie. But it's very important that we find her. Is there anything else you can remember that might be helpful?"

Paul had set his bottle of bourbon back on the shelf and was openly watching the men at the counter now, though he hadn't moved from his place across the store.

"Who did you fellas say you were with again?" Greg suddenly asked, sounding somewhat suspicious, and Paul was impressed with the man. He didn't know Bells, but he wasn't going to go telling her personal business to just anyone all the same. And honestly, Paul wanted to know who these guys were too.

Soldier-boy pulled a badge from his jacket and showed it to Greg patiently saying, "We are agents with the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division, or SHIELD, as I told you before sir."

"We have reason to believe that Miss Swan may be in danger," the other guy said, sounding genuinely concerned, "She needs help, and we just want to find her before she gets hurt."

Could it be possible that these mystery government types somehow knew about Victoria? Or had Bells gotten herself mixed up in something else that had agents trying to find her? Paul's fear had kicked up a notch, but at the same time, a small part of him was thrilled. If these guys were still looking for her, then she must still at least be alive right? After three years with no word, he wasn't the only one who had begun to worry that she might have gotten herself killed at some point.

"Alright," Greg relented with a heavy sigh, "All she said was that she was headed North, wanted to see the sights, maybe spend some time in Canada. It was a long time ago, but she just seemed special somehow, you know? Like anyone with eyes could tell she was scared out of her wits and running from something, or someone, but she stopped to help this young gal calm down her crying baby girl, and she was real kind. I don't know, there was just something about her that stuck with me I guess."

Paul knew exactly what Greg was talking about. That was just so Bells. Running from a sadistic vampire bitch and she takes the time to help out a complete stranger simply because it seemed like the right thing to do… Selfless to a fault.

"You're going to help her, right?" Greg asked the two mystery guys before they left the store.

Looking back over his shoulder at the small man behind the counter, soldier-boy smiled kindly and told him, "We're going to try." And then the two of them walked out and climbed into an SUV in the lot, one which Paul noted had government plates.

His boos completely forgotten, Paul followed them outside and pulled out his cell phone, pushing 1 in his speed dial as Agents one and two drove away.

"Hello?" his alpha's voice answered on the second ring, sounding tired, "Paul? Everything alright at the site?"

"We need to call a pack meeting Sam," he said, letting his hope and curiosity and fear all leak into his voice as he finished by saying simply, "I have news about Bella Swan."

"My house. Two hours. I'll call the others," he ordered, his voice taking on a purposeful timber they'd rarely heard since Bells left, and then his alpha hung up without another word and Paul quickly climbed in his car and headed back towards La Push.

And of course, Paul couldn't help but notice, Soldier-boy and his side-kick were headed in exactly the same direction.


	7. Chapter 7

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 7**

Jared and Kim made their way into Sam's house, both of them fiddling with nervous energy. No one had called for a full pack meeting in almost two years, and Sam hadn't said what was going on when he called, only that it was important and that everyone needed to be there, imprints included.

Looking around the small kitchen where everyone was gathering, Jared was overcome with a wave of grief. How many times had they gathered like this over the years, especially in the early days? But so many of the usual faces were no longer with them. Billy. Harry. Sue. Jake. Leah. Seth. Charlie. Bella...

Sam and Emily were in the kitchen, talking in hushed tones, and it was clear to him that his alpha was on edge about something.

Quil sat at the table, with a seven-year-old Claire in his lap, Embry beside him making small talk in an attempt to cover his own nerves. Standing behind them, Embry's imprint, and Bella's old school friend, Angela was talking animatedly with little Claire, trying to keep the girl entertained while they all waited.

Collin and Brady were both seated across the table from them, silent and distant, clearly not pleased with being there.

And looking across the room, Jared noticed Joy Atera, Quil's mother, seated on the bottom step of the staircase, watching her son. She was all that was left of the elders.

With Billy's death, Jake's disappearance, and the refusal of Rachel or Rebecca to return to the reservation, the Black line was gone completely.

Sam had taken up the mantle of Chief when it was clear Jake would never return to take his rightful place as alpha, and since no one knew if Joshua Uley was alive or dead, he was also technically the elder for his family line.

Harry and Sue had held the tribal elder position for the Clearwater family, and their death, followed by the presumed deaths of their only children, had left their line destroyed as well. Paul Lahote was technically a cousin to both the Black and Clearwater lines, which is why he phased in the first place, so Sam asked him to take a place on the tribal council as well.

Quil's father was lost at sea when he was very young, so for years, the Atera family was represented by his grandfather and the tribe's shaman, Old Quil, but he had passed away nearly two years ago now, and Joy had taken his place on the council.

It saddened him greatly to think that that quiet woman in the corner, only 39 years old, was the head of the tribal council, and the eldest advisor of the pack and the tribe. How had things gone so horribly wrong?

"What's going on Sam?" he finally asked as his alpha returned from the kitchen, his mate at his side. Everyone quieted and looked to their chief for answers.

"Paul called me a few hours ago," he explained, "He was on his way home from our construction site in Seattle. I don't have any specifics yet, and we will all have to wait for him to get here to find out exactly what is going on… But he said he had news on Bella Swan."

And just like that the whole room erupted in a flurry of frantic questions. Was she alright? Did he know where she was? Were Jake and the others with her? Was she coming home? What happened to Victoria? Had the Cullens made an appearance?

Sam just waited silently for them to stop, holding up his hand in front of him, a clear indication for them to shut the hell up so he could speak. "All Paul said was that he had news about Bells. I don't know what the news is, where he got it, or if it is going to be something we want to hear. All I know is that if Bella is involved, each and every one of us would want to hear what he has to say, so here we are. Paul should be here any minute, and then everyone can ask him all of your questions."

And of course, that was the moment Paul decided to stroll through the front door. Everyone turned to him expectantly and he got right to it, "I don't know where she is. I don't even know for sure if she or the others are alive."

"What do you know?" Sam asked, "What happened?"

"I was stopping for gas on my way out of Seattle at Greg's place," he explained, knowing Sam and Jared would both know where he meant as they all stopped their frequently on their way in and out of the city for work, "And I overheard two guys talking to Greg. They were agents with some government group called SHIELD, and don't ask me what the hell it is because I have no idea, but they were asking after Bella. Apparently after she left here she started going by the name Charlotte Connolly, or Charlie for short," and the significance of that wasn't lost on any of them.

"And somehow she landed herself on their radar," he continued before anyone could comment, "One of them was definitely military, but the other one was still built like an ox. They left in a black SUV with government tags, and headed toward Forks."

"What the hell does the government want with Bells?" Kim demanded.

"I don't know," Paul sounded just as worried for their long-lost sister, "But soldier-boy made it clear that he thought she was in danger, and that SHIELD wanted to find her and protect her. He promised Greg they would try to keep her safe, but I have no idea if this is about Victoria, or if Bells has gotten herself into some new brand of trouble, or if these guys even could protect her if they found her."

"So what do we do?" Collin asked, speaking up for the first time.

"If these guys are really looking for Bells, they'll eventually end up poking around here on the res," Brady continued, "So do we help them or try to keep them off her tail?"

"For now," Sam answered, his voice contemplative and his brow pulled tightly together as he thought about it for a moment, "For now, we watch and we wait. I want a wolf tailing their every step from now on. If this SHIELD really has the resources to find and protect Bella, I'm inclined to help them, but if they don't know what they're getting themselves involved in, and it does turn out to be about Victoria and her followers, we can't risk leading innocent humans into what would no doubt be a slaughter."

Jared needed to point out the one blaring problem this could present, "You do realize that if the government has become involved in vampire affairs, and these guys do somehow have the ability to combat them, they may also know about us, or could find out if they start digging around in our legends. Especially if one of them realizes they are being watched by a giant wolf. How do we deal with it if one of them discovers the secret?"

He couldn't help but imagine his wolf trapped in a cage in some government lab while SHIELD tried to learn all the secrets of what made him the perfect vampire-killing machine. He shuddered at the mere thought of it.

"Outsiders have been exposed to the pack on occasion before," Joy reminded them, and they all knew she was primarily talking about Charlie and Bella, and no one wanted to be the one to remind her that Charlie was now dead and Bella had been living on the run for years.

"We will cross that bridge if we come to it, but if they prove themselves capable, it may be useful to have an ally outside of the tribe that can help deal with vampire threats," Sam said finally.

"Not to mention they seem to be the only ones with any leads on finding Bells," Emily added, "It may be worth the risk of exposure if it means finding her and keeping her safe."

And on that point there could be no argument. Bella Swan was family to each and every one of them there, and if these mystery agents could help bring her home, they would all end up helping SHIELD eventually in any way they could.


	8. Chapter 8

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 8**

Bella was walking home from the market, a few bags of essentials in her hands that Josh had asked her to grab, and a smile plastered on her face.

She couldn't believe that things were going so well in her life. No one had tried to kill her in almost half a year, she had an incredible man by her side who loved her, even with her past, and she finally had a place to call home, even if home was a run-down bar and their tiny apartment upstairs in the middle of the desert…

After the events of the last few years, she never thought she'd find this sort of happiness again. And yet here he was. And he'd accepted her, disastrous baggage and all…

She made her way around the last bend in the desolate, dirt road, less than a half mile from the bar, and stopped dead in her tracks as her home came into view.

Even from this distance, she could plainly see the bar was engulfed in flames…

"Josh!" she screamed, dropping her groceries and running towards the inferno, praying that he was alive.

 **12 HOURS EARLIER**

It was time. Molly had been staying in Texas with Josh for almost six months now. Way too long… If she had any hope of keeping ahead of Victoria it was long past time to move on from this place. Before finding Josh, she never would have risked staying anywhere near this long in one place, but her feelings for him made it so hard to leave, even though she knew in her gut it was those feelings that were likely to get them both killed.

So she needed to leave, before it was too late. But she wouldn't be leaving alone this time, if he could accept her that is. She was going to tell him everything, lay all her cards on the table and just pray that the growing love between them was enough.

"Josh, can we talk?" she asked him nervously as she made her way into the bar's back room, where he was already up and working on getting the place ready for the day.

"Sure darlin," he agreed easily enough, though she could tell he looked just as nervous as her, "What's going on?"

He tried to school his face into a mask of calm and ease as she led him to one of the tables in the main bar and took a seat, but inside he was chanting a constant stream of, 'Please don't leave me. She's breaking up with me, I just know it. God, please don't go darlin. I think I'd die without you. Please don't go.'

He was terrified; he'd never let himself fall in love like this before, and he certainly hadn't been planning on any of this when he'd offered her a place to stay all those months ago. He'd felt the pull, sure. It was like everything fell away the moment he saw her walk in, and he knew he just had to know her, had to have her. Josh knew the stories, and he wasn't a fool; he knew what she was to him, but he hadn't been thinking about any of that back then.

In all honesty, he'd just seen a drop-dead gorgeous gal and focused on seducing the hell out of her. Which had worked pretty damn well, but now he had accepted she was so much more than a pretty face and a nice rack. Molly was his whole world, and he couldn't bear the thought of losing her. Which in his lengthy experience with women, was the only thing that followed any variation of the phrase, 'can we talk?'.

"There's something you don't know about me," Molly began, wringing her hands in her lap, "Ok, there's a lot more than one something you don't know about me. My past is… I'm not… I need you to understand… Oh God, I have no idea how to explain this."

Josh reached across the table and grabbed her shaking hand in his, squeezing it reassuringly, before catching her chin in his other hand and turning it up so she was looking into his eyes, "Breathe Molls. Whatever this is, whatever you need to tell me, it won't change anything. I am right here and I'm not going anywhere, ok? Just breathe and start at the beginning."

"The beginning?" she parroted, laughing at the ridiculousness of that statement, "Ok. My name isn't Molly Andrews."

His eyes widened at that, but he held her hand firmly in his, "Alright darlin. I wasn't expecting that, but I suppose I can't really be all that surprised."

"What do you mean?" she demanded, suddenly suspicious and then immensely guilty for doubting him, even if just for a second.

"You were running from something when you found yourself in my bar that night Molls," he explained, "It didn't take a genius to see you were in a tight spot with something real bad in your past and nowhere to go. I guess it sort of makes sense that you'd have changed your name."

She just sat there stunned. She knew that Josh was far too observant for his own good most of the time, and that over the last six months he'd broken through a great many of her emotional walls, even if she'd never shared the whole truth with him about her past. But he just took the fact that she wasn't who she said she was completely in stride like it was an everyday topic of conversation…

Maybe there was a chance this conversation wouldn't scare him off after all.

"So what should I call you darlin?" he finally asked when her silence dragged on, a hint of teasing mixed with his real curiosity.

"Bella," she answered, still stunned, but also highly amused by his unexpected reaction, "My name is Isabella Marie Swan. But everyone called me Bella, or Bells."

"Bells," he decided simply, "My Molls is really Bells. That's easy enough. I like it," he added, smiling, "Now, are you going to tell me why you needed to become someone else Bells?"

"I guess it all started when I moved in with my father," she began her tale, committed to tell him everything, determined to ensure there were no more secrets between them. "His name was Charlie and he lived in a small town in Washington called Forks."

Josh's heart damn near stopped when he heard the name Forks. It couldn't be that she was really from that little rained-out hellhole of a town down the road a piece from the res?

Was it possible that they were meant to have met years ago, and he'd somehow messed with their fates by leaving when he did? What were the chances that she'd end up here of all places after all this time?

His mind was running a million miles a minute, trying to place the name she'd given him. Swan? Bella? Charlie? Charlie Swan?... Deputy Swan? Ah crap, his mate was the daughter of Billy Black's friend from the Forks PD…

"He and my mom, Renee, split up when I was really little and I'd been living with her in Phoenix pretty much my whole life," she continued completely unaware of the thoughts running rampant in his mind in that moment.

"So why'd you decide to move in with Charlie?" Josh decided it was safe to ask, trying to shake the thoughts of Billy Black and his former home. He was already completely into her story, but also concerned with the past tense she was using. What had happened to her police daddy?

"Renee got remarried when I was sixteen," Bella explained, "My step-dad's name was Phil. He was great, really, but he travelled a lot for work. He was a small-time ball player you see, and Renee missed him terribly when he was gone, but she couldn't travel with him because I was still in high school.

Just after my seventeenth birthday, Renee found out she was pregnant, and I decided it was time I stopped keeping my mom from being with Phil full time. They were having a baby together, and he was ready to give up his career to stay in Phoenix with her; I couldn't let him give up his dreams on my account, and I couldn't ask Renee to go through her pregnancy away from him, so I told Charlie I wanted to finish out high school in Washington."

He knew from the tone her voice took when she spoke their names, that they were all dead. Charlie. Renee. Phil. Her little brother or sister? It made his heart break, but he didn't ask her any of his questions, just allowing her to continue.

"Not long after I arrived in Forks, I got involved with a local boy from school. His name was Edward Cullen," she told him and for the second time in as many minutes, Josh felt his heart falter in his chest. Cullen? As in the animal-drinking Cold Ones of legend, Cullen? Crap, the Cold Ones had returned to Forks and he hadn't been there to help his people. Then Josh really thought about what she'd just told him and had to resist the urge to hit his head against a well… Ah double crap, his girl dated a vampire! Crap, crap, crap!

"I have to tell you something about Edward and his family, something I swore I'd never tell anyone. But you need to know, it's the only way… So I have to tell you, but you're going to think I'm insane," she whispered the last bit, her eyes falling to her lap again.

It became abundantly clear to Josh in that moment that Bella was trying to figure out how to tell him that she had been involved with vampires, and that she was terrified he would either think she was crazy, or he would actually believe her and make her leave. Rather than watch her tear herself apart trying to figure this out, he decided to throw her a lifeline; she wasn't the only one with secrets, and if she had really gotten deeply enough entrenched with the Cullens to justify running and changing her name, she would likely know about the treaty as well…

"Bells," he got her attention and smiled reassuringly, "Before you tell me the rest, I think you need to know something about me. My name isn't Josh Cramer; you're not the only one who has spent too long running from their past, and I think this is going to make the rest of your story a little easier," he paused, taking a deep breath before he finished, telling her the truth, "My real name is Joshua Levi Uley."

And it was her turn to sit back completely stunned. Uley? Ah crap, ah crap, ah crap… "Uley?" she whispered, "Joshua Uley? Oh my God… You're _the_ Joshua Uley?... You're Quileute!" she accused, before she started laughing, her eyes alight with the discovery.

"Why am I not surprised you recognize the family name?" he laughed with her, "I'm guessing you had a fair number of dealings with my tribe given your history with the Cullens?"

"You know?" she was grinning from ear to ear, "You already know?!"

He took a long, deep breath before he said as calmly and with the straightest face he could muster, "If you mean I know that the Cullens were vampires, who had a long-standing peace treaty with the wolves of La Push, then yes, I already know."

"Well that certainly makes this a hell of a lot easier," she breathed, her relief evident in her voice as she continued to smile at him, "I have been trying to figure out for weeks how to tell you all of this, and you already know all the insane bits? It's official, I cannot be a normal, human woman. I have never in my whole life been involved with a single, normal, completely human man, and I thought you were the first, but nope, not so," she continued giggling a bit, "So is my man really a wolf shape-shifter?"

He could tell that her question was completely serious, and yet the answer would have absolutely zero baring on her feelings for him one way or the other, and so he simply smiled right back and told her the truth he'd never shared with anyone in his life, "Yes, I am a wolf warrior."


	9. Chapter 9

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 9**

"Like father like son," Bella said, her laughter cut off when his eyes widened in surprise and horror.

"Sammy phased?" Josh sputtered his question.

"Yeah," Bella confirmed, squeezing his hand firmly, "Sam was the first one to phase after the Cullens returned to Forks, though he certainly wasn't the last. He's the alpha of the pack; you'd be so proud of him. That man saved my life more times than I care to admit."

"I think I really need to hear the rest of this story now," Josh wasn't sure which part of her statement had him more worried. His son was a wolf and had become involved in the age old fight against vampires, a fight he had left his home and his family to keep him safely away from? Or his mate had been endangered by his enemies often enough to be closely acquainted with his son's pack, and owe them her life?

"Right," she agreed, taking a few calming breaths before diving back into it, "The long and short of it is Edward and I fell in love, I discovered the truth about vampires, and the Cullens more or less accepted me into their coven. Then a chance-encounter with a small coven of nomadic human-drinkers led me to being nearly killed right in front of him. He very nearly left me after that, believing that he needed to keep me safe from his world, but I convinced him to stay. He believed I was his mate, but hated what he was too much to change me, so he was constantly having to step in to protect me, and he hated himself for adding to the dangers in my life.

On the night of my 18th birthday, there was an accident and Edward's brother, Jasper, attacked me. I was fine," she quickly reassured him when he actually growled at that, "But that was the last straw for Edward. He broke up with me, in a rather cruel fashion, and the entire coven left Forks without even saying goodbye.

I was a wreck emotionally after they left, but a close friend, Jake, helped me deal with everything. He pulled me out of my depression and helped me get my life back on track. What neither of us knew at the time was that one of the remaining two nomads from the coven that attacked me, Victoria, was planning her revenge, as she blamed me for her mate's death at the hands of the Cullens.

She tried for months to get past Sam so she could kill me, but he ran her off every time. Unfortunately, her continued presence in the area started the phase in the others, and the pack grew rather quickly. Jake was among the first to transform. And of course, I couldn't keep from sticking my nose in his business when he started distancing himself from me, so eventually I discovered the truth about the pack as well."

"And that didn't send you running the other direction?" Josh interrupted, surprised, and still reeling from everything she was telling him, "After everything you went through with the vampires, you found out your best friend was really a shape-shifter, and you didn't run for the hills?"

Bells looked at him strangely for a moment before she spoke, clearly upset about something, "The wolves are protectors. Sam, Jake, you… They fought the creatures that were hunting me. They kept me safe. And for the first time in a very long time, I had someone I could share all of my secrets with. Jake was already more than a best friend to me, and I wasn't going to turn my back on him because he turned out to be even more incredible than I had originally believed."

"You were in love with him," Josh correctly surmised.

"Yeah, I was," she whispered, a single tear escaping as her voice cracked slightly, and Josh immediately recognized that Jake was yet another person she loved who had been lost. What the hell had happened?

"The pack accepted me, even though I wasn't Jake's imprint, they saw me as family, and they kept me safe," she continued, and Josh's eyes about bugged out of their sockets when she said, 'imprint'. She knew. She knew everything. Ah, hell…

"But Victoria was determined," she continued unaware of the impact her words were beginning to have on the wolf beside her, "When she couldn't get to me, she tried to send in a friend, Laurent, the third member of her former coven, hoping that the wolves wouldn't recognize his scent and he might be able to get to me. It very nearly worked, but Sam recognized his scent from the early days and brought the pack in time to save my life and kill Laurent."

"But she didn't stop did she?" Josh pressed, knowing whatever it was the haunted her so was coming soon.

"She realized she couldn't get around the pack, so she decided to go through them," Bella explained, "And for that she would need more fighters. So for nearly six months, she terrorized Seattle, turning more than thirty newborn vampires, and killing hundreds more to keep them fed while she trained them. It was an army born and bred for the sole purpose of killing me…"

"Jesus," Josh couldn't believe what he was hearing, but it also made a sick sort of sense given everything he knew so far, the pieces beginning to fall into place for him.

"The impending threat was enough to force even younger wolves to turn as the pack needed to keep growing," she told him, "But even then, they were sorely outnumbered. Sam, Jake, and I decided that there was only one way that we would have a chance at defeating them, but it was a risky play.

My blood is especially potent, and acts as a sort of natural lure for vampires, plus Victoria was so desperate to get to me that my scent would distract her, so we set ourselves a trap. A trail of my scent, made stronger by my blood, was laid through the woods we expected them to approach through, ending in a meadow, where the wolves were lying in wait.

By then, my father had accidentally been exposed to the secret when one of the wolves phased in our backyard to kill a vampire scout that would have killed me or Charlie. And he was actually incredibly helpful. He was able to get his hands on incendiary ammunition. Their skin is like marble, but with armor piercing rounds, hollow-points, and incendiaries, he could pack a hell of a punch. He taught me to shoot, and the two of us, along with his three deputies, Billy Black and Harry Clearwater, helped the wolves pick them off from a ridge above the battlefield."

Josh couldn't hide his shock at this development, his mouth flopping open like a fish, "You… you killed vampires?" he asked, incredulous.

"Yeah. Quite a few actually. The seven of us helped even up the odds," she explained, "We never would have won otherwise, but with us there, everyone on our side survived, though there were more than a few injuries."

"But if you won…?" Josh let his question hang open-ended, but she knew what he was really asking her. Why had she run? Who was after her? What had happened to her family?

"We destroyed the army," Bella explained, "But Victoria escaped. When she realized the battle was turning in our favor, she abandoned her army and made for the cliffs in La Push. The wolves followed, but she escaped into the water."

"But she came back, didn't she?" Josh pressed, needing to know exactly what was after his mate.

"Yes," Bella admitted, her eyes glazed over as they filled with the painful memory, "But not right away. She watched from a distance, planned everything out to the last detail, and then waited for her opportunity to strike.

She killed my mother, step-father, and half-sister first. They had moved to Jacksonville, and I had hoped they were far enough away that she wouldn't go after them…

Then she killed my father. I was the one to find his body, and I was alone. I know that she was still there, watching, close enough to have killed me that night, but she let me live because she wanted me to suffer and killing those I loved was the most painful way she could think to hurt me. I knew that the wolves would have taken me in, but I couldn't bear the thought of anyone else dying because of me, so that night I wrote letters for Sam and Jake and the rest of the pack, and I ran.

Jake followed me of course," she was crying at this point, and seeing her like this was tearing Josh apart, "Two of the others from the pack came with him to try and find me and bring me home, but Victoria found them before they found me. She killed all three of them. It took her almost a year to catch up with me, but when she did, she didn't just kill me out right. She… I was…"

"She tortured you," Josh whispered in a broken, pained voice as he finally realized where she'd gotten all of her scars. The bite marks… He'd never put it together before because he'd never seen what a vampire bite looked like on human flesh, but now it all made sense, and he felt his stomach turn. The woman he loved had been burned, beaten, cut, fed from, and who knew what else, and he hadn't been there to protect her…

Josh suddenly stood, coming around the small table to pull her into his arms, holding her tightly to his chest, as if to reassure himself that she was here with him, and that she was really alright.

"Shhh," she cooed, burying her face in his chest and returning his embrace just as fervently, "I'm alive, right here with you. I'm ok. I'm safe, here with you. I survived. It's ok." Her words repeated again and again as they held each other and cried, but they worked to calm him some, and after what felt like a very long time, he pulled back enough to look into her eyes and swore to himself that they would never be filled with such sorrow and pain ever again.

"I'll always keep you safe Bella. I promise," he vowed, "No one will ever hurt you like that again. For as long as I draw breath, I will always protect you."

 **12 HOURS LATER**

Bella was about thirty feet from the bar when she began to notice the lumps of burning stone strewn throughout the property, and her heart nearly stopped as she recognized them for exactly what they were. Shredded vampires.

Josh must have been attacked while she was gone and had killed them. But how had the bar caught fire? Had the flames from the bodies simply spread out of control? Or had someone set it intentionally?

And where the hell was Josh?!

She opened her mouth to call out to him again, but before the sound could escape, she felt a strong hand pull a cloth over her mouth and nose. Chloroform?

She felt herself being lifted in strong, cold arms as she began to lose consciousness, and she felt the wind rush by her as her attacker began running at a superhuman speed, but just before everything went black, she heard something in the distance behind them.

A wolf's howl.


	10. Chapter 10

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 10**

Clint was seated in the back of his quinjet, reviewing the new crime scene photos and ME reports on his tablet from Jacksonville PD, when the call finally came in from the rest of the team.

"Finally," he muttered as he swiped to receive the call and watched as Tony, Natasha, and Bruce's faces all appeared on his screen, "I thought Rogers was supposed to be making the call tonight?" he asked, confused at not seeing their leader's face.

"It would appear that Mr. World-War-Two still hasn't mastered the use of Skype," Tony explained, laughing, "I'm going to patch our technology challenged teammates in right now, hold on."

There was a brief pause as the call connected, and then Steve and Thor appeared on his screen alongside the others.

"Alright," Steve began, "Thanks Tony, for getting us connected. Who wants to start?"

"The Jacksonville PD is fairly oblivious unfortunately," Clint decided he would share his findings first, "But they do keep incredibly detailed records. They didn't have much of anything else to add to the Dwyer's murders directly, but I found something else curious that was happening at the same time that I think might be related."

"Go ahead," Steve encouraged, curious, but also worried that Clint might have found the same thing he and Thor had when they visited the Seattle PD before heading to Forks.

"There were seven murders in the days leading up to the Dwyer's deaths," Clint told them, sending the case specifics to each of them as he spoke, "All of them were completely drained of blood, and their bodies were disposed of in public dumpsters, and burned beyond recognition. No physical evidence, no concrete leads, no witnesses. Then the Dwyer's deaths, and the murders suddenly stop."

"Obviously this was the work of a serial killer," Tony admitted, but didn't want to think that a cold, professional killer like this could be involved in the hunt for his niece, "But what makes you think the cases are related?"

"At first glance I wouldn't," Clint had anticipated this question and sent the rest of his photos, "But if you take a closer look at the list of victims, among them was a high school girl who worked part time as Sabrina Dwyer's babysitter, a coworker of Renee's, and the barista from the little café where Phil got his coffee every morning. The other four victims were all homeless or runaways, living on the streets, people that no one would miss."

"So the babysitter, the teacher, and the barista were inconsistencies in the victim type," Natasha commented, "and they all had ties to the family. I can see where that would raise some red flags. But I'm guessing there was something else?"

"There were messages left in blood on the sides of the dumpsters," Clint continued, knowing that given the history of taunting and threatening notes at the other crime scenes, this would certainly peak their interest, "One word at each scene, placed directly above where the bodies were found. The handwriting is an exact match for the other notes."

"What was the message?" Thor asked, looking deeply concerned at the thought of even more deaths attributed to this killer.

"If you read them in order of the deaths, it says ' **SO EASY IT WAS HARDLY EVEN FUN** '," Clint feels sick as he reads this aloud.

"That's just sick," Bruce says, his eyes taking on a slight green tint as he flips through the graphic images of the charred corpses and sadistic, bloody messages.

"Unfortunately, I think we found a similar pattern here," Steve informed them sadly, "In the months leading up to Charles Swan's murder, there were dozens of unexplained disappearances in Seattle and surrounding towns, mostly drug addicts, homeless people, and runaways. Because of the type of people being taken, very little was done in way of an investigation."

"Likely why V chose that victim type in the first place," Natasha pointed out, "If you kill people that no one is likely to miss, and cover your tracks fairly well, the authorities are more likely to let it slip through the cracks. There's probably far more victims than were actually reported."

"They didn't find any messages like the ones in Jacksonville?" Tony asked.

"None," Steve confirmed, "But there were nine bodies found in all, every one drained of blood and burned before being left in a dumpster. So I think it's safe to say these are the work of the same person."

"But if there were no messages, and all the victims there had no ties to the family, how'd you two catch on to the possible connection?" Bruce suddenly asked, looking puzzled, "It makes sense now, given the similarities to the case in Florida, but you already knew, how?"

Thor sighed sadly before hitting a few buttons on his tablet screen, "If this infernal devise will do as I intend, you should be seeing the pictures of the nine victims whose bodies were found, pictures of what they looked like while they were alive."

Clint waited for a moment before the pictures did indeed appear on his screen and just like that it all made sense. Nine photos of teenage girls, smiling on his screen. All brunettes with brown eyes and pale complexion.

"Jesus," Bruce breathed as his own copies of the victims' pictures came through, "They all look exactly like her."

"Ok, so we've thoroughly established that V is a seriously sick puppy, and one that really hates our girl," Tony cut in, "Did you guys actually find anything that might help us find my niece before she ends up a bloodless, charred corpse?"

"Nothing concrete," Steve responded, wishing he had more to give his friend, "The attendant at the gas station Isabella stopped in the night she ran remembered her, and confirmed that she was using the alias Natasha suggested. He also said that she mentioned heading North, possibly to Canada."

"Well she's proving to be even better than we thought," Natasha chuckled, clearly impressed.

"What do you mean?" Clint asked, confused.

"She planted a false trail just in case someone tried to follow her," Natasha clarified, "She told the attendant that she was headed North, knowing that anyone following her might ask him if he'd seen her, and then she immediately got on the highway and headed South."

"You found her trail then Lady Natasha?" Thor asked, his voice rising in his excitement at a lead.

"The cameras were useless," Bruce told them, "It makes sense given her father was the Chief of Police, but she seemed to know exactly where we would be looking. Aside from the lucky break in Seattle we haven't gotten a single good shot of her on camera anywhere."

"But we were able to trace the fake credit cards she used to a certain extent," Tony added, "As far as we can tell, she'd make a large purchase, usually jewelry of some kind, and then pawn the item off for cash before moving on. No ATM transactions means less of a chance of being caught on camera, and her movements are harder to trace than if she was using the cards everywhere she went. There was one charge on each of the cards she used and then nothing."

"Like I said, she is proving herself to be a lot harder to pin down than we anticipated," Natasha reiterated.

"But you were able to trace her major movements?" Steve tried to refocus the genius.

"Charlotte Connelly buys a diamond engagement ring in San Francisco, California three days after Charles' death," Tony begins listing off, "Then it's rubies for Kimberly Williams in San Diego, California two months after that. Emeralds for Emily Samuels in Denver, Colorado four months in to her little road trip. Sapphires for Lauren Grant in Michigan two months after that. Opals for Angelica Emerson in Albany, New York two months after that. And finally Chocolate Pearls and Onyx for Elizabeth Masen ten months after she left Forks in Miami, Florida."

"Consistent, efficient, but varied enough so as not to draw attention," Natasha comments, not even trying to hide her obvious approval of their little runner. If J. Jenks hadn't been caught, and they hadn't recovered his IDs, there was no way they would have found her trail.

"And after Florida?" Thor asks.

"After Miami nothing," Tony replies dejectedly, "The rubble of a burnt out car registered to Elizabeth Masen was found outside Atlanta, Georgia. Inside were recovered what appeared to be the melted remnants of several IDs and credit cards, along with a small duffel of women's clothing. Nothing else, and her trail goes cold from there. I've got nothing."

"So either she realized that Jenks had been arrested and ditched the IDs in case someone got ahold of the names from him, and she dropped off the grid some other way," Clint began, trying to be optimistic, but seeing in all of their eyes that they knew the second option was far more likely.

"Or V caught up with her, torched her car, and took her," Natasha finished.

"We don't know that," Steve cut in before any of them could completely give in to the horrible thought that this girl might already be long dead, "And even if she was taken, we have no reason to believe she is dead. It's been two years since the car fire. No body has been recovered. We continue to pursue this as if she is alive until we have proof otherwise."

"Steve's right," Bruce added, "And even if, God forbid, Isabella is gone, we owe it to her and her family, and all of the other victims we've found in Florida and Washington, to bring V to justice."

They all felt somewhat reassured at this declaration, even if they didn't completely believe it in that moment. It was enough to know that they were all on the same page, and that they were still looking.

"There's nothing more I can do from here," Clint told them, "I'm going to take the quinjet tonight and head to Seattle. I'll meet you two in Forks by tomorrow morning."

"Good idea," Steve agreed, "No one should be alone on this one until we get a better handle on what we're dealing with."

And with that, Bruce, Natasha, and Tony signed off, leaving Clint with the Captain and the Norse God on the line.

"The deeper we dig here, the more I feel like we've gotten ourselves involved in something seriously darker and more dangerous than we were prepared for," Clint spoke up after a moment, "None of us are going to stop until we find Isabella, and if she's alive, we are all going to go to the ends of the Earth to bring her home. Just be careful out there, ok? I can't explain it, but I just know there's still a big part of this we don't have a clear understanding of yet, and I don't want to see either of you get hurt."

He was glad he waited to voice his concerns until the others were no longer on the line, as Tony would have assuredly given him hell for such an emotional comment. As it was Steve and Thor both looked surprised at his obvious show of concern, but neither commented any further, just nodding and returning a solemn, "You too Hawk," before signing off.

Of course, none of them realized they were being watched in that moment…

Jared walked into his alpha's home late that night, having been relieved from his watch duty by Collin. It was bizarre for them, taking back up surveillance shifts again after three years of having no one to really watch over, like a strange déjà vu.

"Where are they now?" Sam asked him as soon as he made it through the door. He didn't have to clarify; Jared knew he was asking about the SHIELD agents. He was surprised however, to find that everyone from the earlier pack meeting was still there, sprawled out in varying levels of dozing off on couches and in chairs.

"Motel room at the Forks Lodge," he answered, settling himself in the only empty chair at the dining room table, "Collin's taken over, but I think they've settled in for the night."

"Anything new to report?" his alpha asked.

"Actually yes," Jared responded, "The two Paul saw appear to be a part of a larger team. They had a video call about an hour ago to share their findings. One man was digging deeper into the deaths of Renee and her family in Jacksonville, and he found a trail of bodies there, drained of blood with messages for Bella. The other three seemed to be back at their home base, wherever that is, and they were digging into Bella's movements after she left here."

"Were they able to find anything useful?" Paul asked, sitting up from his place on the couch.

"They basically said she was like a ghost," Jared admitted, "She somehow got fake documents, credit cards, that sort of thing under a bunch of fake names, and she was using them to disappear. SHIELD got ahold of a list of names and followed her to California, then Colorado, Michigan, New York, Florida, and finally Georgia. Apparently she completely disappeared after that, ditching the fake IDs."

"How long ago was she in Georgia?" Sam asked.

"Two years ago, so about a year after she left here," Jared informed them.

Paul let out a low whistle, "Well damn, she pretty much covered the country in a year without raising any red flags. Impressive."

Ignoring his comment, Sam pressed, "Any idea why they're looking for her now?"

"Oh, you're going to love this," Jared couldn't help himself from smiling here, "Most of this team seem like total mystery agent types, but there was one face I recognized. Tony freaking Stark."

"Iron Man?!" Brady asked, floored, suddenly wide awake in his place at the bottom of the stairs.

"The one and only," Jared confirmed, "He seems to be the one driving this little 'find Bella' government operation, and you're never going to be able to guess why…"

"Don't leave us hanging here Jared," Sam warned, "What does he want with Bells?"

"Apparently, our very own Bella Swan, is Iron Man's niece," he finally told them all, watching as all of their jaws dropped in unison and he was greeted with a glorious stunned silence.


	11. Chapter 11

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 11**

Embry was on the usual patrol route, running a tight circuit around the borders of the reservation, just in case a nomad decided to pass through the area. There hadn't been any major action on this side of things in so long many of the wolves didn't see the point in patrolling anymore, and Sam had let up somewhat. These days one wolf ran through the night, so they each only had to patrol once every week or so.

Of course, now that SHIELD was in town looking for Bells, Sam had them rotating to cover the agents as well, six hour shifts day and night. Embry found he had missed sharing his mind with his pack brothers in the last few years, and now having someone to share patrol with, he remembered why he liked this in the early days.

Jared had relayed all of the details from the SHIELD team conference as they happened, and after he was relieved by Collin, Embry had replayed them all for the younger wolf so nothing was missed. Jared was no doubt sharing everything he'd learned with everyone else who was camped out back at Sam's place now, but they would keep passing things along in the pack mind in more detail as everyone rotated through over the next few days.

He was completely baffled when he remembered hearing through Jared's ears as Tony Stark called Bells his niece. It didn't make any sense to him, and he found himself running through the possibilities in his head yet again.

He knew that Charlie didn't have any siblings, or at least any that he knew about, but then again, Charlie had never really spoken about his family much. Maybe Stark was a half-brother, or a step-brother or something. But then why had the former Police Chief lived in a century-old run-down family home, with barely enough to make ends meet while his flighty ex-wife raised Bells on a first-grade teacher's salary? Had the billionaire hung them out to dry? Or did he not know about them?

Or maybe Stark was really Renee's brother? That would make more sense since none of the pack knew her very well, and it was possible that she had family out there they'd never heard about. But how could Bells not know since Renee raised her? Would she have really kept something like that from them?

"Hey Collin?" Embry reached out with his mind to the other wolf, "Do you remember when Stark had the press conference announcing that he was actually Iron Man?"

"Of course man, everyone remembers that," Collin replied grumpily, not happy about having ended up on babysitting duty while the agents were… Drinking? Embry really hadn't been paying any attention to the images in his pack brother's mind until then. What the hell were those two up to?

"They've blown through almost three full bottles of whiskey," Collin informed him, "And they don't even seem mildly buzzed. It's like watching Paul and Jared drink. The alcohol goes down, but there's absolutely no impact at all."

"You think they might not be human?" Embry asked, suddenly focused on the things Collin was seeing more than the actual world around him as he continued running his route.

"I have no idea," Collin replied, "They're definitely not vampires. And they don't smell like us. Soldier-boy, um, I think they said his name is Steve, he smells human for sure, but the other one, Thor, his scent is just a little off. I've never smelt anything quite like it. Human, but not. They're both definitely… something."

"Well, I suppose we shouldn't be surprised," Embry laughed, "They're looking for Bells. If they were normal, run of the mill humans I'd honestly be a little shocked, especially if they're working with Iron Man."

"Anyway, what were you asking?" Collin spoke up when Embry fell silent, "About the Iron Man press conference…"

"Do you remember when it was exactly?" Embry clarified his question.

"I don't know, three years maybe," Collin said lightheartedly before he realized what that meant, "Shit! Bella might have known about him all along, but he was missing in the Middle East back when everything went down with Victoria and the newborns. And by the time he was back and doing all the superhero stuff, she was already on the run. Do you think she'd have even heard about the Iron Man stuff wherever she was?"

"Bells would have had to be living under a rock to have missed that," Embry replied with a chuckle, before he realized all too suddenly that with everything that had happened she might have literally been hiding out in some cave somewhere or something.

He was about to say something else, when suddenly he was dragged back into his own mind forcefully as a new scent registered coming from First Beach. He took one long sniff before he was flying toward the source of the scent with reckless abandon.

"What have you got?" Collin called to him worriedly, suddenly on high-alert in his post outside Forks Lodge, "A leech?"

"Wolf," Embry corrected before letting a howl rip through him, calling to the others…

Josh had been running all night and all day and the sun had set again, and still he didn't let his legs slow their grueling pace. He'd have been much faster normally, but his hind leg was still mending, even as he pushed to keep moving now, from the vampire's violent slashing back at the bar.

But he couldn't stop, not while every second was another second that his enemies had Bells in their clutches. He had to get to La Push, to his son's pack; they were the only ones that could help him get his mate back now.

Of course, Josh had tried to follow Victoria himself after he'd fought off the other creatures, burning the pieces as he went. He never would have just let the redheaded bitch drag Bells away without giving chase, his injuries be damned. But she'd made a beeline for the Gulf, and once she hit the water there was no trail for him to follow. She'd resurface eventually, and she'd have Bella with her when she did. So now he needed re-enforcements to help him search and prepare for one hell of a fight.

It was late by the time he reached the once familiar boundaries of his former home, and his body was beginning to fail him under the strain. He was limping at a near-human pace down the damp sands of First Beach when he heard the first howl in the distance. One of Sam's wolves had caught his scent and was coming towards him.

Josh didn't even have the energy left to take a defensive position in case they attacked before he could explain. He just let himself fall to his belly on the sand, his broken and bloodied leg whining at the sudden movement, a pathetic whimper escaping his lips just as the first wolf broke through the tree line…

Embry approached the strange wolf cautiously at first, but when the pained whimper reached his ears and the horrible combination of blood and leech reached his nose, all his hesitation was thrown aside. This was one of his people, a lost pack brother come home, and he needed help.

He crossed the remaining distance between them and laid down beside the wolf on the sand, a clear sign that he meant him no harm, before nudging him gently with his head. He couldn't hear him in the pack mind, so he wasn't sure how else to communicate that he wanted to help and he needed to know what had happened.

"Stay where you are Collin," Sam ordered as he entered the pack mind followed immediately by Paul, "Embry report." It was an alpha command and his tone clearly meant he wanted answers. With the news of Bells and the uncertainty of the SHIELD agents here, everyone was on edge so Embry wasn't surprised that he seemed worried.

"Another wolf. First Beach. Not one of ours, but definitely Quileute. Hurt, badly. And I can smell at least a dozen different leech scents on him. He was attacked," Embry quickly filled them in as they joined him just inside the tree line.

"I don't hear anyone else in the pack mind," Paul pointed out, not questioning Embry's assessment, just trying to get some concrete answers.

"I don't know why," he told them quickly, licking the wolf's paw when he seemed to be barely holding onto consciousness, afraid if he fell asleep he might not wake up, "He's in really bad shape here guys."

Josh fought to keep his eyes open, thankful for the presence of the other wolf beside him, but too weak to phase back. He wished he had asked Bella what each of the wolves looked like in this form. He could only hope that the howl he'd heard before was a call for the others; he needed to speak to Sam and knew he wouldn't be able to stay conscious for more than a few seconds once he changed back into his human form.

Just when he thought he couldn't fight it any longer, two more wolves made their way out of the trees. A monstrously large midnight black wolf that he prayed was his son, and an only slightly smaller silver wolf.

"I'm going to phase human," Sam announced to the others, "It might be the only way to get him to trust us. And we are going to need him to phase back if we want to help him."

Josh watched as the black wolf walked back into the cover of the trees, only to return a moment later a man. A tall, russet-skinned man that he instantly knew was his Sam. "You're safe now," his son promised him as he approached him slowly, hands raised slightly in front of him in a sign of peace, "My wife is a nurse; she'll know how to help you," he continued, shocking Josh thoroughly with the thought that his little boy was all grown up and married now, "I just need you to phase back so we can get you back to my place; we won't be able to move you like this."

Needing no further prodding, Josh focused all his energy on the form he wanted to take, feeling his broken body bend and morph back into a man.

"There you go," Sam seemed pleasantly surprised that he'd been able to phase so quickly, likely believing he was a young wolf who had just phased for the first time. That is until his eyes found Josh's face, and sparkled with recognition, "Dad?" he whispered, shocked.

"Sam," Josh breathed, already feeling his last bit of strength leaving him, "Need help. Vampire."

"I know," Sam cut him off, "We could smell them on you. You're safe here," before he turned to the other two wolves, "Phase back and help me move him."

His son moved to his side as soon as they left for the tree line, taking his hand in his own, his eyes welling with tears, "Dad? How?"

"Sam, listen to me," Josh cut him off, needing to tell him before he passed out, "Bella. Vampire took my Bells. Help, please," and then his vision faded to black.

 **A/N: This story broke 100 reviews today! :) Thank you guys so much for all of the amazing feedback and support. It makes it so much more fun to write when my readers are being so responsive and engaging. Please keep them coming and I will try to update soon.**


	12. Chapter 12

**FINDING HOME**

 **SUMMARY –** Renee Dwyer was Tony Stark's half-sister. When Renee is murdered in her home in Jacksonville, Tony knows something isn't right. He is distraught and needs answers. When his digging unearths several more related deaths and a niece he never knew existed, how will he react? Can Bella overcome the horrors of her past and make a new life with the only family she has left?

 **MARVEL'S AVENGERS X TWILIGHT CROSSOVER…**

 **COPYRIGHT DISCLAIMER –** All Avenger's characters belong to Marvel Comics, and all Twilight Saga characters belong to Stephanie Meyer. I own nothing, and no copyright infringement is intended.

 **CHAPTER 12**

Steve was sitting in the middle of his full size bed in the cramped motel room, his head bowed and shoulders hunched over, as he read through all of the case files he'd been sent today.

After the conference call with the rest of the team, Thor had left in search of food for the two of them, and Steve had tried to find something in the mass of information that might help him bring Isabella home.

To no avail thus far. Surrounded by the images of burnt flesh and bloodless, lifeless corpses, he'd been unable to find anything at all. Just more unanswered questions.

Why drain the blood? How had they drained the blood? (There were no discernable puncture wounds on any of the victims, but the ME had written it off since they were so badly burnt.) Who was V? Why did V want to hurt Isabella?

Something was not adding up for him. The notes…

The murders of Charles Swan and the Dwyer family had been vicious, brutal, bloody affairs. There was uncontrollable rage clearly on display there. Messages addressed to Isabella, literally nailed to their chests. It was personal. He still didn't understand what the motive was exactly, but there were clues that created at least something of an idea.

' **what I'm owed' 'avenge him'** Somehow, V felt Isabella was to blame for a loss, likely of someone they loved, and so they were killing those she loved in turn, paying back what was owed. And the endgame was Isabella dead, as vengeance for the loss of 'him'. But who was he? And did that mean that V might be a woman? A grieving woman lashing out violently at the one she blames for the death of her lover? It was a theory at least…

But the messages left at the other Jacksonville crime scenes, while obviously drawn by the same hand, held no anger, no passion. They were emotionless, short, simple, unsigned.

It didn't make sense. V clearly hadn't intended them to be directed at anyone in particular, so why write them at all? What was the motive in killing seven people with no connection to Isabella?

The babysitter might have been able to tell her something about the family's patterns. The co-worker might have known bits and pieces of information about Renee's personal life. But a barista that happened to make Isabella's step-father's morning coffee from time to time? It didn't make sense…

And the killings in Seattle made even less sense. No one with ties to Isabella or her family. No messages. No obvious motive. And everything about those crime scenes was clean, planned, almost mission-oriented.

It was such a stark contrast with the murder of Charles Swan that he could barely believe the same person had been responsible. And all the missing persons whose bodies never turned up at all? What the hell was going on there?!

Frustrated, Steve tossed down the open file in his hands, letting it join the others in the mess of bloody images he'd spread across the bed in front of him.

He laid back on the pillows and looked up at the ceiling, as if expecting the answers he sought to be scrawled in blood above him. Something was very wrong here, and he hated not knowing what it was he was missing.

Clint's parting words to him kept replaying in his mind now. 'I can't explain it, but I just know there's still a big part of this we don't have a clear understanding of yet, and I don't want to see either of you get hurt.'

He was right. Steve didn't understand what was going on here. He felt out of his depth, and he couldn't shake the feeling that his team was wading into dangerous waters here…

The door swinging open suddenly shook Steve from his thoughts as Thor returned, bags of food in hand.

"I found a diner in town," the God told him, "Burgers and fries and pie," he continued, as if the fact that he'd managed to scrounge up some dessert in this tiny rained out town would make everything better somehow, "And I found a liquor store," Thor continued, finally catching Steve's attention as he pulled bottle after bottle of whiskey from the other bag.

"You know neither of us can actually get drunk off of that," Steve reminded him.

"Regardless, food and drink might help to lighten your spirits. And Tony always says that the men of Midgard often have their greatest of breakthroughs while drinking," he explained, handing a burger and a bottle to Steve as if that settled all arguments.

And so they drank, and ate, and drank, and laughed, and drank, and told old stories, and drank some more.

Before either of them knew what had happened, they'd burned through several tall bottles of whiskey, and though neither of them was feeling the effects of the considerable amount of alcohol, they both seemed calmer and less defeated.

"You know that we are going to find Isabella alive, don't you?" Thor asked him when they fell into a companionable silence.

"So you keep telling me," Steve muttered, "How can you be so sure? With everything we're seeing here? After everything V has done…"

"She is a survivor, Steve," Thor persisted, "Even Lady Natasha is impressed with everything she's done that we've seen so far. Her enemy is terrible, and we are now seeing just how violent V can be. But Isabella escaped. She knew what was coming and she ran. She travelled nearly your whole country, completely undetected, and then disappeared altogether so that even the Man of Iron cannot seem to find her. It is clear that V is powerful and dangerous, but our team is also powerful, and if we cannot find her, perhaps V cannot either. So she should be safe until we can find her, and she will keep herself alive until we can get to her."

"Powerful," Steve whispered, his eyes suddenly widening with realization.

"What?" Thor asked, following confused as Steve jumped up from their place on the floor and ran to his bed, flipping through the pages of police reports there.

He finally found what he was looking for and started reading from the personal notes of the Seattle PD Detective he'd read through earlier, "'No man can kill without leaving some piece of themselves behind. A hair, a fingerprint, a piece of skin, their image on camera. Something. Every killer, no matter how well trained or how much experience, eventually slips up. Every single one. This thing leaves nothing behind. No evidence, no witnesses, no video footage, nothing. It is an unnatural violence the likes of which I've never seen before. I don't know what it is, but it is no man.'"

"You think the killer might not be human?" Thor asked, sounding somewhat distressed at the prospect that Isabella might be being hunted by some unknown creature.

"This detective certainly did… A few months ago I would have thought that was impossible," Steve admitted, "But I am sitting in a motel room with an immortal God from another realm. Bruce and I were both born human, but no one in their right mind would classify us as normal humans now. You've seen the things we've fought together over the last few months. It's certainly a possibility."

"Then we shall explore it," Thor stated firmly, "We will determine what it is we are meant to be fighting, and we will face it head on. I don't care if V is a man, woman, God, or Frost Giant. We will find Isabella, and we will protect her."

Steve agreed wholeheartedly, and he already had a few ideas on what they might be looking at now that he'd accepted V likely wasn't human…

Collin was freaking out. He'd heard everything from his post behind the motel. Sam and the others had all phased out to take Josh back to Sam's place, so he was alone in his own head right now, and he had no idea what to do.

Steve and Thor were most decidedly NOT HUMAN. They had said so themselves.

And their slightly off scent, seeming immunity to the effects of alcohol, combined with all the wild tales he'd heard them sharing with one another throughout the night…

Steve had fought in World War 2, but he didn't look like he could be a day over thirty. He wasn't a vampire, not by a long shot, but was he immortal?

And he'd actually called Thor an immortal God. What the hell did that mean?!

Collin needed to talk to the pack, and quickly. But Sam would be upset if he left his post, and no one was expected to relieve him for hours. Could this wait that long? Would Sam be sending Embry back out to finish his patrol shift, or someone else to cover it?

It was moments like this that he really missed having Bells around. She would have calmed him down in three seconds flat. And she would have known exactly what to do now. Hell, knowing her, she'd probably know exactly who these guys really were and whether or not they were dangerous.

Great Spirits, he just missed her so much…

 **A/N: Sorry about the long wait between updates. Just one more week until final exams are over and then I should be back to writing more often. Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the update. :)**


	13. AN

**THIS IS NOT A NEW CHAPTER... But there will be one very soon... :)**

 **A/N: I am so sorry everyone for the long wait on updates across all of my stories. I have been dealing with a tremendous amount of personal struggles over the last several months, and I know it's no excuse for neglecting all of my wonderful readers, but I am sorry all the same. I just wanted to let you know that I have not abandoned my stories, and I am working on updates as we speak, so the long wait is almost over. Thank you to everyone who has reviewed my stories in the last few months, and thank you to everyone who is still reading my work despite the long wait.**


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